Is Cheryl'S Beau Bees Woke?

Company Overview

Cheryl's Beau Bees is a small family-run business at 108 W Walnut Street in historic downtown Smithville, Tennessee — a charming square in DeKalb County known for its old courthouse, Fiddlers Jamboree, and tight-knit small-town culture. The shop combines three businesses under one roof: a sit-down restaurant serving home-cooked Southern lunches, a beekeeping operation producing local raw honey and handcrafted beeswax candles, and a gift shop stocked with handmade crafts, apparel, jewelry, and home decor.

The food side is anchored by signature menu items that have built a loyal local following — chicken salad sandwiches, Hungarian mushroom soup, pimento cheese, premium sandwiches, fresh salads, and homemade soups. The bee side draws customers in for raw local honey and beeswax candles. The shop is open Tuesday through Saturday with extended Friday hours, making it a downtown anchor for the Smithville lunch crowd, weekend visitors, and gift shoppers across Middle Tennessee.

ESG and Sustainability

Cheryl's Beau Bees does not publish a corporate ESG report or chase sustainability ratings, but the actual sustainability story here is a strong one. Local beekeeping is one of the most environmentally beneficial small-business categories that exists — pollination supports surrounding farms and gardens, and raw local honey by definition has no global supply chain. The food side leans on home-cooked simplicity rather than industrial restaurant logistics. For shoppers who care about real, ground-level environmental impact rather than ESG paperwork, this is exactly what a sustainable small business looks like.

DEI Programs

There is no DEI department, diversity statement, or corporate equity framework at Cheryl's Beau Bees, because there is no corporate structure to build one on top of. The business hires from its own community, serves whoever walks in for lunch, and has built a strong local reputation through hospitality and quality rather than through identity-politics positioning. For values-based consumers tired of corporate restaurant chains turning their staff training programs into ideological reeducation, this is a refreshingly normal Main Street operation.

LGBTQ+ Advocacy

Cheryl's Beau Bees has no record of Pride Month sponsorships, no Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index participation, and no public alignment with LGBTQ+ activist campaigns. The shop focuses on what it is: a Southern lunch spot, a beekeeping business, and a gift store. Customers are not asked to sign on to a political agenda as a condition of buying a jar of honey or a chicken salad sandwich.

Political Activity

There is no public record of Cheryl's Beau Bees making PAC contributions, partisan political donations, or lobbying activity. As a small-town Tennessee family business it does not have a corporate political-action arm, and there is no evidence of the ownership turning the storefront into a partisan platform. The business stays out of the national political fight and keeps its energy in the kitchen, the bee yard, and the gift shop.

Consumer Impact

For values-based shoppers in Middle Tennessee — and for travelers passing through Smithville on the way to Center Hill Lake or Cookeville — Cheryl's Beau Bees is exactly the kind of small Main Street business that deserves direct support. Eating lunch there, picking up a jar of local honey, buying a beeswax candle, or grabbing a handmade gift puts dollars directly into a small Tennessee operation rather than into a national chain with a corporate equity scorecard. The shop is a strong fit for Mother's Day, Christmas, hostess gifts, and small wedding favors. For consumers building out a values-based shopping list focused on real Main Street America, Cheryl's Beau Bees is a clean, easy add to the list.